"Savage! This is pure savagery!"
By the end of the first evening self-study session, Shen Yuan had already checked his answers and gone over the test paper.
When he returned to his seat, he was met with Zhou Shaojie's condemnation.
"Yuan, I trusted you so much! How could you do something so..."
Before Zhou Shaojie could finish, he saw Shen Yuan clasp his fists together and declare in a powerful, resonant tone,
"Father!"
Hearing this, a hint of astonishment appeared in Li Zhi's eyes.
'Damn, he folded fast.'
But Li Zhi didn't say anything. After all, the mango sago was really good.
As his deskmate, Li Zhi naturally knew how she had gotten the mango sago in her hand.
Zhou Shaojie opened his mouth, his emotions torn between "wanting to condemn" and "feeling incredibly pleased."
He really wanted to continue condemning Shen Yuan's immoral behavior, but then again...
'If the son is not taught, it is the father's fault.'
'If I keep this up, it'll be my fault!'
'Ah, forget it. I'll just forgive him.'
'It was just a few English questions. It's not like I did that well myself, anyway.'
Zhou Shaojie sighed deeply. "As your father, I forgive you."
The words had barely left his mouth when Zhou Shaojie saw a hand reach for his desk. Before he could intercept it, Shen Yuan had snatched his weekly English test paper.
"Well, well, well, Ah Jie, how did you only score a 61 on your English test?"
Seeing that what's done was done, Zhou Shaojie leaned back in his seat. "Yuan, why are you so focused on the score! This grading system alienates the effort a person puts in!"
"Didn't I put in effort studying English? Do you think I wanted to get a score like this? I want to improve too! Yuan! I want to get better so badly!"
With that, Zhou Shaojie said earnestly, "Besides, isn't my score of 61 just to make the rest of the class look good by comparison?"
Shen Yuan chuckled. "Wow, Zhou Shaojie gets the MVP award!"
...
After evening self-study, Shen Yuan and Li Zhi swapped their schoolbags as usual.
The two walked along, neither being the first to speak.
THUMP.
THUMP.
Shen Yuan kicked a stone along the road with every other step.
Li Zhi got annoyed by the sound and spoke up, "Can you stop kicking that, you big baby?"
"Oh."
Shen Yuan picked up the round stone and carefully hid it in a flowerbed by the side of the road.
"I'll come back and kick you tomorrow."
Hearing Shen Yuan's words, Li Zhi was speechless.
'This has gone beyond childish. This is just plain idiotic.'
But since Shen Yuan mentioned tomorrow, Li Zhi took the opportunity to ask, "We have a day off tomorrow. What are you planning to do?"
Shen Yuan immediately sidled up to Li Zhi and asked with a grin, "Are you trying to ask me to hang out but you're too shy to say it? Don't worry, just say the word and I'll be there."
Li Zhi froze for a second, then dodged away in disgust. "Perv! Who would want to hang out with you!"
Shen Yuan pointed a finger at her. "Liar."
"Who's lying!" Li Zhi retorted, getting flustered.
"When Li Zhi lies, she pinches her own fingers."
Li Zhi's steps faltered, and she froze on the spot.
Shen Yuan seized the opportunity to step in front of her and grab her left hand.
Pointing to the mark on her left index finger, Shen Yuan smiled. "Go on, tell me. What do you want to do tomorrow?"
Li Zhi quickly snatched her hand back from Shen Yuan's grasp, glaring at the boy in front of her with a face full of shame and anger.
"I'm not going anymore!"
Shen Yuan watched Beautiful Maiden Qing Mei quicken her pace toward home, a smile on his face.
The Sunday break started after school let out at noon and ended before evening self-study began, amounting to just over seven hours in total.
'Where could they go?'
'Go hiking in the middle of a summer heatwave?'
'No way.'
Jiyang was just a small county town; there were only so many places to have fun.
But in this blistering heat, most outdoor options were out of the question.
So, the only places left were the few shopping malls.
'What can you do at a mall?'
Thinking of this, Shen Yuan took out his phone and did a quick search.
He quickly discovered a newly opened claw machine arcade.
'So that's her angle!'
'Mystery solved, folks.'
'Claw machines.'
As far as Shen Yuan knew, when it came to claw machines, Li Zhi was the type who loved to play but was terrible at it.
But Shen Yuan was different. He was a master.
'So Li Zhi's earlier hesitation was most likely because she wanted me to win some dolls for her.'
'It's just that a certain someone called her out on it, so the beautiful maiden was too embarrassed to ask.'
'Then that same someone caught her lying, and she ended up giving up in frustration, deciding not to go at all.'
"Tomorrow, I'll let you all witness the skills of Emperor Yuan of Heaven!"
Shen Yuan stuffed his phone into his pocket and hurried to catch up with Li Zhi.
Although the beautiful maiden was shorter than Shen Yuan, her legs were surprisingly long. When she walked with purpose, he actually had to jog a few steps to keep up.
But because she had been exposed, the beautiful maiden didn't say a word to her childhood friend the entire way.
She didn't even wait for Shen Yuan the next morning.
Seeing that Li Zhi's shoes were gone from her doorstep, Shen Yuan pouted.
'Oh well. This gives me a chance to work on my system mission.'
The system missions were actually pretty easy to complete.
After all, the system never specified for how long or how far he had to run continuously for it to count toward the 10 kilometers.
Shen Yuan could run to the cafeteria, run to the school store, and run to the bathroom, and it would all count toward the 10 kilometers.
He just had to keep racking up the distance.
Grinding out 2 kilometers a day was no problem at all.
By the time Shen Yuan got to the classroom, Li Zhi was already there.
The moment he sat down, Shen Yuan launched his interrogation: "Why didn't you wait for me?"
"You woke up late. What's that got to do with me?"
Perhaps because she felt a bit guilty, Li Zhi's voice lacked any real conviction.
"Hey!"
But Shen Yuan immediately leaned in conspiratorially. "Do you know why I woke up late today?"
'The reason a boy wakes up late?'
'Wore himself out at night?'
Li Zhi wasn't completely clueless, especially being in the lively big family of Class 15.
The boys were always roughhousing and making suggestive jokes after class; even a fool would get the gist.
At that thought, an expression of disgust immediately appeared on Li Zhi's face.
"Perv!"
"Hey, hey, hey!"
Shen Yuan pointed a finger at her. "Don't make baseless accusations!"
"Then what else could it be?"
Seeing her convinced expression, the corner of Shen Yuan's mouth lifted into a smile.
"Let me tell you, yesterday I saw a new claw machine arcade. One yuan gets you three tokens. If you win a certain number of dolls, you can exchange them for a big one. I'm planning to go stock up today."
Hearing the words "claw machine," Li Zhi, as expected, took the bait.
But Beautiful Maiden Qing Mei didn't show her excitement immediately. Instead, she turned her head away.
"Then go. Why are you telling me?"
Shen Yuan looked at Li Zhi, a smile playing on his lips.
'Heh, she's trying to act tsundere.'
'Doesn't she know the tsundere childhood friend always loses to the girl who appears out of nowhere?'
'If a new girl showed up right now, you'd be toast, Young Master Li.'
Shen Yuan leaned closer to Li Zhi, poking her fair arm. "You're really not going?"
"I'm not!"
"Tsk, that's a shame. I heard they give you 10 free tokens to try it out. I figured if we both went, we could get 20."
Hearing this, Li Zhi turned her head back to Shen Yuan and said with utmost seriousness, "Shen Yuan, you are tempting me."
Shen Yuan grinned. "Then let's go together."
The tsundere childhood friend nodded. "I'm a person who can't resist temptation."